Wenzel Profant

Wenzel Profant

Wenzel Profant (born July 21, 1913 in Dudelange , † January 20, 1989 in Luxembourg ) was a Luxembourgish sculptor and painter. During the Second World War he was active in the resistance against National Socialism .

biography

Artistic career before 1940

Little is known about Wenzel Profant's origin and family. But even as a child he was interested in shapes and colors. During his studies at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Esch an der Alzette , he mainly copied paintings by well-known artists that he found in books and magazines. At the age of 17 he turned to sculpture . With a grant from the Luxembourg state, he traveled to Florence , where he trained with the sculptor Bruno Innocenti at the Reggio Istituto d'Arte . After his return he settled in Esch. In the following years he struggled with financial problems and therefore also carried out carpentry and stucco work and painted buildings. But he was also involved with sculptural work on the facade design of the town hall of Esch. Profant later remembered these years as a happy time, as he was among friends of artists. Before 1940 he turned increasingly to abstract forms in his art.

In 1936 Wenzel Profant - he was 23 years old - represented Luxembourg with the sculpture Hurdles in the art competition at the Olympic Games in Berlin .

Resist and soldier

In 1940 Wenzel Profant was one of the founding members of the Alweraje group , which resisted the occupation by the German Wehrmacht . After he came into the Gestapo's field of vision , he fled to Great Britain via France , Spain and North Africa . There he became a parachutist in the service of the British secret service, later he joined the US Army and was involved in the invasion of Normandy .

Work after the war

After the end of the war Profant returned to Luxembourg and set up an “open-air studio” in Wellenstein near the Moselle . He later said that after the experiences of the war it took him some time to regain a certain ease and to experiment with new forms of expression. Working mainly in stone, granite, wood and metal, he created monumental or medium-sized works and also worked as a draftsman and illustrator. In 1954 and 1959 he exhibited his works in the Salons des Iconomaques in the Musée de l'Etat ; A group of abstract artists from Luxembourg used the term Iconomaques . In 1954 he exhibited five wooden sculptures that represented five stages in a human life: childhood, youth, maturity, motherhood and old age.

In the following decades, Wenzel Profant's sculptures were shown in numerous exhibitions in Luxembourg. His works can also be seen in public spaces in Luxembourg, for example in the thermal park of Bad Mondorf , or his memorial for the refugees of the war in Diekirch .

Commemoration

In 2009 a street in Bech-Kleinmacher was named after Wenzel Profant.

Works

• Bas-relief (1937) - Town hall of Esch an der Alzette (not marked by name)
• Metamorphosis (1980) - Bad Mondorf
• Épanouissement (1987) - in front of the Lycée Robert-Schuman in Luxembourg City

Web links

Commons : Wenzel Profant  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Wenzel Profant in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Architecture tour. (PDF) Esch City Tourist Office, accessed on June 27, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Linda Eischen: Wenzel Profant. (PDF) La Collection Luxembourgeoise du Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, accessed on June 27, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Manfred Neureiter: Lexicon of ex-libris artists. Pro BUSINESS, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86386-449-1 , p. 634 ( limited preview in Google book search).
4. ^ A l'occasion du 20e anniversaire du décès de l'artiste Wenzel Profant. (PDF) Schëfflenger Bulletin, December 2008, p. 13 , accessed on June 27, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Art MONDORF Domaine Thermal - Mondorf. (No longer available online.) In: mondorf.lu. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on June 27, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Syndicat d'Initiative de la ville de Diekirch - Diekirch and its monuments - die monuments in diekirch - diekirch. In: tourisme.diekirch.lu. Retrieved June 27, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Fair in Bech-Kleinmacher. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Luxemburger Wort, August 14, 2009, archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on June 27, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.